Honey Don't

Story

Recording

• Honey Don’t was recorded in a single afternoon session on 26 October 1964 (Monday) in Studio Two at EMI, Abbey Road: takes 1–5. The session ran from 4.30pm to 6.30pm — just two hours, making it one of the most efficiently completed tracks on Beatles for Sale. Take 5 was marked “best.”¹
• Carl Perkins cover, vocal reassignment — “John had previously sung this on stage but Ringo always had at least one vocal per album so he did the recording.” The vocal reassignment reflects a deliberate allocation strategy: Lennon relinquished the lead to ensure Starr had his customary solo showcase on the LP.¹
• Well-rehearsed material — George Harrison commented on the efficiency of the session: “Songs like ‘Honey Don’t’ and ‘Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby’, we’d played live so often that we only had to get a sound on them and do them.” The five-take completion confirms how thoroughly the band had worked the song into its live repertoire before entering the studio.²
• Four-track tape layout — According to the tape-box documentation: Track 1: drums, bass; Track 2: acoustic guitar, electric guitar; Track 3: vocals; Track 4: tambourine. The layout dedicated an entire track to tambourine alone, an unusual allocation given the four-track constraint, suggesting that the tambourine overdub was considered essential to the song’s rhythmic character.²
• Same-day mixing — Both mono and stereo mixes were completed the following day, 27 October 1964, from take 5 with Ken Scott as second engineer. The turnaround suggests confidence in the recording: no further remixing was needed for the LP master.¹

Equipment

Recording Timeline

• 26 October 1964 (Mon) — recording, takes 1–5, EMI Studio Two — Studio Two, 4.30–6.30pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: A.B. Lincoln. Recording: Honey Don’t (takes 1–5). Take 5 selected as “best.” Carl Perkins cover with Ringo Starr on lead vocal. “John had previously sung this on stage but Ringo always had at least one vocal per album so he did the recording.” The same day also produced What You’re Doing (re-make, takes 13–19, 7.30–10.00pm) and the Another Beatles Christmas Record.¹
• 27 October 1964 (Tue) — mono mixing from take 5, Studio Two control room — P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Mono mixing: Honey Don’t (from take 5). Mixed alongside What You’re Doing, Every Little Thing, and Eight Days a Week.¹
• 27 October 1964 (Tue) — stereo mixing from take 5, Studio Two control room — P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Ken Scott. Stereo mixing: Honey Don’t (from take 5). Stereo and mono mixing completed on the same day, reflecting the straightforward nature of the recording.¹

Studio Notes

• Ringo’s vocal tradition — one per album — Lewisohn documents an established pattern: “Ringo always had at least one vocal per album so he did the recording.” The tradition ran from Please Please Me (Boys) through to Abbey Road (Octopus’s Garden), with Starr always given at least one lead vocal showcase per studio album.¹
• Five takes — efficient cover-version session — The five-take completion contrasts sharply with the 14 takes and 13 edit pieces needed for Baby’s in Black earlier in the same album’s sessions. The live-honed material required minimal studio refinement: Harrison’s comment about only needing to “get a sound on them and do them” explains the speed. The two-hour session (4.30–6.30pm) recorded only Honey Don’t; the evening session (7.30–10.00pm) produced a re-make of What You’re Doing.^1,2
• Dedicated tambourine track — The four-track layout placed tambourine alone on Track 4. Across the Beatles for Sale sessions, tambourine was typically grouped with guitars or other overdubs; its isolation here suggests the instrument was considered a defining textural element of the arrangement, or that the overdub was recorded separately and required its own track.²
• REDD.51 console + RS124/Fairchild compressor chain — The same REDD.51 desk and outboard patching documented across the Beatles for Sale era applies: RS124 Altec compressors on Main Faders I and II (drums, bass, guitars); Fairchild 660 limiters on Main Faders III and IV (vocals, tambourine). This patching arrangement was “directly tied to the four-track tape layout.”²
• Same-day mono and stereo mixing — Both mixes were produced on 27 October 1964 from take 5, with Ken Scott as second engineer. The rapid turnaround — recording on Monday, mixing on Tuesday, with no remixes needed later — makes Honey Don’t one of the most efficiently completed recordings on Beatles for Sale. Unlike Baby’s in Black, which required a replacement mono mix two months after the first attempt, this song’s initial mix was the one used on the released LP.¹
• Carl Perkins in the Beatles’ repertoire — Honey Don’t was one of three Carl Perkins covers the Beatles recorded: Matchbox (June 1964) and Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby (18 October 1964). All three featured Perkins’ rockabilly style, and all three were songs the band had been performing live for years before committing them to tape.¹

Releases

• 1964 UK LP Beatles for Sale (4 December 1964, Parlophone PMC 1240 mono / PCS 3062 stereo, track 10) — Released master from take 5. Mono mix made 27 October 1964 by Norman Smith with Ken Scott as 2E. Stereo mix also made 27 October 1964 by Norman Smith with Ken Scott as 2E.¹
• 1964 US LP Beatles ’65 (15 December 1964, Capitol ST 2228) — Included on the US-only Capitol compilation alongside other Beatles for Sale tracks.¹

Sources

1. Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 51.
2. Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 380–84.